Last-Minute Loss Doesn't Faze Braves

John Calabria cringed at a Doug Tesoriero shot in the opening moments Wednesday night and didn't waste any time getting his point across.

"Dougie's the kind of guy who responds well to a man-to-man challenge," Calabria said of the senior midfielder.

The coach can deal with a last-minute non-conference loss like Wednesday's 8-7 decision at Cold Spring Harbor, as long as he knows he can push the right buttons when it really counts. And Tesoriero responded to the brief chewing out with three goals, including a pair in the third quarter as the Braves fought back from a 6-3 halftime deficit.

"Unlike the last game (a 10-5 loss to Garden City last week), we actually played the game tonight," Calabria said. "I'm always really proud of these guys, but the way they came back speaks volumes."

After trailing almost the whole game, the Braves finally knotted it up at 7-7 with 3:27 left when Jared Godsell found the back of the net off a feed from Zachary Gropper.

In the end Cold Spring Harbor's Cameron Lee beat Syosset goalie Ryan Feit with 32 seconds left for the victory, but that doesn't tell the story of Feit's night.

Feit, a freshman, replaced senior captain Jonathan Cohen to start the second half and almost immediately responded with a tough save. He gave up only one goal in each of the final two quarters and made several saves following Tesoriero's goals to keep it a 7-6 deficit going into the fourth. Calabria said he's still evaluating the goalie situation as the April 10 conference opener at Hicksville approaches.